May 28, 1998: The Death of Phil Hartman

Hartman as Bill McNeal on NewsRadio

May 28, 1998: Phil Hartman is shot and killed by his wife, who then killed herself, at their home in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino, California.

Philip Edward Hartmann (he later dropped the 2nd N) was born on September 24, 1948 in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, also the birthplace of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and the adopted hometown of Alexander Graham Bell, the Scotsman credited with inventing the telephone. He grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, and became a graphic artist. As with actors John Ritter and Tom Selleck, his 1st appearance on television was as one of the "bachelor" contestants on The Dating Game.

He joined the L.A.-based comedy troupe The Groundlings, where he became a close friend of Paul Reubens, who later developed the character of Pee-wee Herman. He got work as a voiceover artist for cartoons. In 1986, he was hired as a castmember of Saturday Night Live, where his best-known performance came that December 6: As President Ronald Reagan, showing that his friendly but out-of-it persona was a façade, and that the Iran-Contra scandal was actually masking a James Bond-style supervillain, trading money, armaments and illicit goods all over the world.

Hartman as Reagan on SNL

Also among Hartman's fictional characters were the Frankenstein monster, the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer; and Gene, who would host various shows as "Fishing with the Anal-Retentive Sportsman," "Cooking with the Anal-Retentive Chef," "Home Improvement with the Anal-Retentive Carpenter," and so on. His impressions included later First Lady Barbara Bush, later President Bill Clinton, singer Frank Sinatra, talk-show host Phil Donahue, film director Oliver Stone; and actors Charlton Heston, Kirk Douglas and Michael Caine. He said his favorite character to do was Ed McMahon, alongside Dana Carvey's Johnny Carson.

Hartman as Clinton on SNL: "Ah feel yer pain."

Jan Hooks, who played First Lady Hillary Clinton, nicknamed Phil "Glue," because he held the cast together. She particularly credited him with helping her overcome stage fright: Acting for movies and taped TV shows is one thing, but doing it in front of a live studio audience is another, especially when it's being broadcast live. Show creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels backed her opinion up: "He kind of held the show together. He gave to everybody and demanded very little. He was very low-maintenance."

By the 1993-94 season, he was the senior castmember. He said he felt "like an athlete who's watched all his World Series teammates get traded off into other directions... It was hard to watch them leave, because I sort of felt we were all part of the team that saved the show."

By this point, he was back doing cartoon voiceovers, playing actor Troy McClure and various other characters for The Simpsons. In 1995, he joined the cast of the NBC sitcom NewsRadio, playing anchor Bill McNeal, occupying much the same role and character as Ted Knight did on The Mary Tyler Moore Show a generation earlier. He was beloved by a new group of castmates.

In 1987, Phil married Brynn Omdahl. It was his 3rd marriage, and they had 2 children. He tried to get her TV and movie parts, but she proved unreliable due to drug use. And she was incredibly jealous, having sent threatening letters to both Hooks, whom she considered married to Phil "on some other level," and his 2nd ex-wife, Lisa Strain.

By 1998, she had been taking the antidepressant Zoloft, and things seemed to be improving. But on May 27, she had dinner with a friend at an Italian restaurant, and they had drinks. Her postmortem toxicology report would also find cocaine in her system. This combined with her medication to produce a bad reaction, and when she got home, she and Phil had a big argument. He went to bed. At around 3:00 AM on May 28, she shot him 3 times.

She then drove to a the house of a friend, Ron Douglas (no relation to Kirk), leaving the children at home. She confessed to Douglas, who didn't believe her. She drove him back to the house, and showed him Phil's body. Douglas called 9-1-1, and Brynn locked herself in the bathroom. The police arrived, and got the children out of the house. Then she shot herself, having just turned 40.

The Simpsons retired all of his characters. So did NewsRadio, whose 1998-99 season premiere showed the characters reflecting on McNeal's recent death. He was succeeded on the show by his close friend and former SNL castmate, Jon Lovitz. But his absence hurt the show, and it only lasted 1 more season. Brynn's sister and her husband raised the Hartman children.

In a tragic irony: Reagan, Mrs. Bush, Clinton, Donahue, Stone, Heston, Caine, McMahon and Kirk Douglas were all older than Hartman; and all outlived him, some by many years. Sinatra, 32 years older, died only 2 weeks before him. To make matters worse, Reagan had survived being shot, and Hartman played Heston mainly as the older version, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association.

*

May 28, 1998 was a Thursday. Football was out of season. The NBA Playoffs were in progress, but no games were played on this day. In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals was held at the Marine Midland Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo, and the Washington Capitals beat the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3. Peter Bondra scored the winning goal, 9:37 into overtime.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-3 at Yankee Stadium. David Wells was the winning pitcher, while Tim Wakefield and his knuckleball didn't get out of the 4th inning. Darryl Strawberry and Jorge Posada hit home runs. Derek Jeter went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Texas Rangers, 5-2 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Cal Ripken went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Atlanta Braves, 9-5 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta. The Braves blew a 4-1 lead as the Expos scored 2 runs in the 7th inning, 2 more in the 8th, and 4 in the 9th. The winning pitcher was Maddux -- not Greg of the Braves, but his brother Mike Maddux of the Expos. Greg would win 355 games in the major leagues, the most of any pitcher whose career began after 1942; Mike, just 39.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 5-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Edgar Martinez, Alex Rodriguez and Glenallen Hill hit home runs. Ken Griffey Jr. went 1-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-2 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-7 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Tigers scored 5 runs in the 9th inning to send the game to extra innings, but their closer, Todd Jones, melted down in the top of the 10th, walking 5 batters, including back-to-back bases-loaded walks to Chad Kreuter and Ray Durham.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-7 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Bobby Abreu hit 2 home runs. Sammy Sosa, on his way to 66 on the season, did not hit a home run. Mark Grace did, part of a 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs day. But it was his error in the top of the 9th that gave the Phils the winning run.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. Mark McGwire went 1-for-2 with 2 walks, but did not hit a home run.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-7 at Candlestick Park (then named 3Com Park at Candlestick Point) in San Francisco. Barry Bonds appeared as a pinch-hitter before going into left field, and did not have an official at-bat. However, he had already drawn a walk in the 8th, helping the Giants to close the gap to 7-5.

The expansion D-backs made it 8-5 in the top of the 9th. The Giants made it 8-6 with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, but the D-backs' Gregg Olson walked J.T. Snow to load the bases with Bonds coming up. Arizona manager Buck Showalter made a very gutsy move: He ordered Bonds walked intentionally. With the bases loaded, forcing in a run, and making it 8-7. He decided he'd rather face Brent Mayne with the bases loaded and a 1-run lead than Bonds with the bases loaded and a 2-run lead.

And remember: This was early in the season when people went nuts over McGwire's 70 homers and Sosa's 66. It is generally believed that Bonds, jealous for attention, didn't start using steroids until after this season, and hadn't yet become the man capable of hitting 73 home runs in 2001.

The strategy worked: Mayne gave the ball a ride to deep right field, but Brent Brede caught it, and the Diamondbacks won.

* And the New York Mets, the Anaheim Angels, the Florida Marlins, the Houston Astros, the Kansas City Royals, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, the Oakland Athletics, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the San Diego Padres, were not scheduled.